FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF ARIZONA 793 



9. Physalis versicolor Rydb., Torrey Bot. Club Bui. 22: 307. 1895. 

 Western Pima County, 2,000 to 4,000 feet, mesas and foothills, 



August and September. Southern Arizona and northern Mexico. 



10. Physalis crassifolia Benth., Bot. Voy. Sulph. 40. 1844. 

 Canyons of the Colorado River in Coconino and Mohave Counties, 



to Pima and Yuma Counties, 3,000 feet or lower, dry rocky slopes, 

 February to October. Southern Utah and Arizona to southeastern 

 California and Baja California. 



Arizona's only suffruteseent species and also the most xerophytic 

 one. A form with subcordate leaf blades, var. cardiophylla Gray, is 

 occasional in Arizona. 



5. SARACHA" 



A large perennial herb with a vertically elongate tuberous root; 

 stems branching, sharply 4-angled; leaves long-petioled, the blades 

 large, very thin, ovate, acuminate, cuneate at base, entire or nearly 

 so; flowers in axillary umbels; corolla rotate, greenish; berry many- 

 seeded, dark purple when mature. 



1. Saracha procumbens (Cav.) Ruiz and Pavon, Fl. Peruv. Chil. 2- 

 43. 1799. 



Atropa procumbens Cav., Icon. PI. 1: 53. 1791. 

 Saracha sessilis Greene, Leaflets 2: 23. 1909. 



Mountains of Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, 3,500 to 

 5,500 feet, shady canyons in rich soil, August to September, type of 

 S. sessilis from the Chiricahua Mountains (Blumer). Southern 

 Arizona to South America. 



6. CAPSICUM. Redpepper 



Plant more or less shrubby; steins widely branched; leaves slender- 

 petioled, the blades thin, ovate or lance-ovate, acuminate, entire; 

 peduncles long and slender, often in pairs, spreading or somewhat 

 reflexed; calyx small, shallowly toothed or truncate; corolla rotate, 

 deeply cleft, whitish; fruit short-ovoid or nearly globose, persistent. 



1. Capsicum baccatum L, Mant. 1: 46. 1767. 



Capsicum jrutescens L. var. baccatum Irish, Mo. Bot. Gard. 

 Ann. Rpt. 9: 97. 1898. 



West slope of the Baboquivari Mountains, Pima County, about 

 4,000 feet, in a canyon {Peebles et al. 403, 610), probably elsewhere in 

 southern Arizona, September. Florida to southern Texas, southern 

 Arizona, and south to tropical America. 



Birdpepper, chillipiquin. The very pungent berries are used as a 

 condiment and medicinally as a local stimulant. 



7. SOLANUM. Nightshade 



Plants herbaceous or suffruteseent, sometimes prickly; leaves 

 petioled, entire to bipinnatifid, the pairs often very unequal in size; 

 flowers mostly lateral (extra-axillary), solitary or in cymes; corolla 

 rotate or rotate-campanulate, 5-toothed to 5-parted; anthers opening 

 by apical pores or short slits; seeds numerous, more or less flattened. 



-' Reference: Morton, C. V. notes on the genus saracha. Biol. Soc. "Wash. Proe. 51: 75-78. 1938. 



